Malicious security related attacks by hackers on communication networks result in disruption of communication services, financial losses, theft of proprietary information, and marring of service providers' brand names. This problem is serious and the number and sophistication of attacks are on the rise. It is important for the service providers to protect their networks with the latest techniques before the attack happens, and intervene to correct a problem and update preventive measures when attacks happen. Manual methods are error prone, time-consuming, and inadequate to timely protect service providers' networks.
“Triple-play” service introduction (e.g. voice, data, and video) in networks is a goal for service providers especially in the current market place. One significant technical goal for quick and successful triple-play service deployment and maintenance is quality of service (QoS) management and meeting service assurance demands from customers. As stated above, manual procedures to accomplish these tasks are not only error prone, but also time consuming.